It handed the Daggers a massive three points and kept their faint play-off hopes alive. The 1-0 victory over Bournemouth ten days prior, and the host of chances carved out that day, signalled a greater attacking threat from the Daggers, which was finally realised on Tuesday night.

It’s not the first time the Daggers have been involved in an epic comeback over the years though. Here’s a look at one or two memorable games.

The Ryman-league winning season of 1999/2000 yielded an incredible 20 wins from 21 home games. The only blot on the record a 1-1 home draw with Chesham United who went on to finish third that year. Spoilt week in week out from August to May, Daggers fans could hardly have grumbled if we’d been humbled once that year. That fate appeared sealed when Farnborough Town turned up to Victoria Road in April and tore the form book to shreds taking, what seemed, an unassailable 2-0 lead. But an inspired substitution and the arrival of Mark Keen turned the game on its head. Scoring two and setting up Paul Cobb for the other, Keen helped the Daggers to a famous victory, maintaining an imperious home league record that spanned from December 1998 to August 2000; an incredible 32 games.

Although a 2-1 defeat on the day, Paul Terry’s last gasp goal at Morecambe in the 2003 play-off semi-finals ensured a 3-3 aggregate scoreline, allowing the Daggers to progress to the final after winning on penalties. Buoyed by 5,405 fervent (mostly Morecambe) supporters, the Daggers finally succumbed to an 86th minute Adriano Rigoglioso goal giving the Shrimpers a 3-2 aggregate lead. Yet it was to be the Daggers who were to have the last laugh. Paul Terry kept his head to curl a shot from the edge of the box in the 89th minute to restore parity. There was further drama to come, as an agonising period of extra-time remained goalless, despite Tim Cole rattling the bar, before the Daggers came through 3-2 on penalties.

There have been more than one or two tasty encounters between the Daggers and near neighbours Leyton Orient over the years. The 3-2 LDV first round victory for the Daggers in October 2001 went a long way to vanquish the painful memories of the 4-5 FA Cup first round defeat in 1992 to the O’s. The 2001 contest generated a great deal of local interest with over 2,600 in attendance. These two sides sat relatively close to each other in the football pyramid at that time; the Daggers establishing themselves as a top Conference club and Orient languishing in the old Third Division. Falling behind to goals from Dean Smith and pantomime villain Aaron Mclean, the Daggers had a mountain to climb. But climb they did. Skipper Steve Heffer pulled one back for the reds after heading home a Steve McGavin cross. Not a prolific scorer over the years, Heffs turned goalscoring hero, netting again in injury time to ensure the game continued. To the delight of the Victoria Road faithful, the game didn’t last too much longer. Back when golden goals were the order of the day, Lee Goodwin delivered the telling blow in extra time to seal a memorable comeback.

Not content with despatching of Leyton Orient in round one, the Daggers came from behind again to see off the challenge of higher league opposition, this time beating Luton Town. The Hatters went 2-1 in front after 68 minutes as Peter Thomson headed home. Galvanised however after their previous round’s exploits, the Daggers drew level after a Paul Terry effort rebounded off the bar to hit the unfortunate Mark Ovendale in the Luton goal, before crossing the line. Extra time arrived and so did Ashley Vickers to rifle home a golden goal winner to seal another giant killing scalp for the East Londoners.

We’re not going to be deterred though and our confidence (stupidity) leads us to committing further money to the bookies this weekend. We’ll avoid the Prem this week after last week’s woes, with the temptation to again back a Tottenham draw with Everton being ignored.

In the Championship, Watford take on Newcastle at Vicarage Road. The Hornets have been pretty decent at home this season despite their mid-table position, and coupled with the Magpies’ recent fondness for away draws, we’ll take the 12/5 about the draw.

In League One, there’s a Friday night match between Southend and Charlton which should be a close game. Southend find themselves bottom of the form table but Charlton have stuttered recently with only 1 win in 6 which explains the 13/10 on offer for the Addicks. To give ourselves a bit of insurance, take 4/6 on Charlton draw no bet.

We’ll dip into the Conference for the next two offerings, with Luton travelling to Crawley on Saturday. Crawley have been good at home with their away form explaining their mid-table position, and despite Luton’s good away record they’ve draw most of their matches when visiting the better sides. That makes 12/5 on the draw worth taking. Elsewhere, Ebbsfleet are top of the form tables and take on lowly Barrow. Take Fleet to win at 11/10.

Our last bet this week is a cheeky accumulator attempt. Our four home teams are Notts County, Sheffield United, Coventry and York which gives odds of 21/4 when combined.

Mark first made a name for himself as a defender at Southern League Dartford in the 80s before moving onto Enfield who were relegated to the Isthmian League in 1990. He twice found himself a runner-up whilst with the E’s as our very own Redbridge Forest and then Woking the following year proved just too good. Peter Taylor was cutting his managerial teeth with both the Darts and Enfield at this time but, perhaps more tellingly for what was to follow, his assistant was a certain Terry Harris. Whilst at Southbury Road Keeno played alongside several other names that may be familiar to Dagenham supporters, such as Mark Kane, Pat Staunton, and top-scorer Graham Westley.

After leaving Enfield, Mark went on to play for Heybridge Swifts and St. Albans under Garry Hill before arriving at the Daggers following half a season with the Iron. Garry was most definitely in favour of signing players he knew with several of St. Albans’ side following him to Victoria Road, and he obviously knew the qualities Keen would bring to the promotion push.

His first start in a Daggers shirt came at Carshalton in an incredibly boring 1-1 draw, just days after the superb 3-1 win at title rivals St. Albans. Restricted mainly to substitute appearances, he was often brought on in an attacking role when a change of approach was required. His first major impact on a game was in the return game against, yes them again, St. Albans when he came off the bench to inspire the side to a 2-1 victory. However, it was against Farnborough five weeks later that he earnt hero status.

Finding ourselves 2-0 down with time ebbing away it seemed there was about to be another twist in the title race. With our loss at Aldershot and subsequent draw at Enfield a few weeks previously, nerves were fraying all around the ground, but Keeno had other ideas. Sent on for Matt Jones into a 3-pronged attack with Shipp and Cobb, he netted two goals and then set up Cobby for the winner in one of the finest comebacks seen at Victoria Road.

He wasn’t finished there. On the day that we were hoping to seal the title away at Hampton and Richmond Borough, goalkeeper Paul Newell was sent off as we led 1-0 with ten minutes left of the first half. Without a recognised keeper on the bench, Keeno was pressed into service. He could do nothing about goals either side of half-time despite an admirable performance, and even after the further sending off of Dominic Naylor, the Daggers came back to win 3-2 and seal the title in truly exceptional style.

Everybody was probably expecting Mark to be one of the close-season departures given his age and the promotion, but he actually started the first match back in the Conference away at Leigh RMI. This time he was back in defence as pre-season injuries left us with only 4 fit defenders but, of course, he scored the first goal in a 2-1 win. He actually went on to become a key squad member that season, scoring vital goals in a 4-4 draw at Forest Green, a 2-0 win at Stevenage and a 3-1 victory over Hayes in the 2nd game of an amazing FA Cup run.

Not content with his role as a defender, he reprised his goalkeeping exploits away to Morecambe at the end of the season. With Roberts sent off, his first task was to pick the ball out of the net from the resulting penalty. However, with the game now poised at 3-2, he incredibly saved a second penalty to maintain the lead and secure a 3rd place finish.

In total Mark played 45 matches for the Daggers, scoring 6 goals in surely one of the quickest ever elevations to legendary status you will find. He went on to play for Chelmsford City before hanging up his boots.

You can tell it has been a long time since we offered our tips, because the Manchester City/Liverpool return match is this weekend! City have 6 wins from their last 6 at home, and Liverpool have struggled for goals away from home without Torres. Therefore City look too good at 6/4 to win.

Staying in the Prem, and Tottenham visit Wigan on Sunday. Wigan drew at home to Bolton in midweek on a frankly awful pitch which hindered both sides. Spurs should find the same problems, and coupled with their patchy form and Wigan’s fondness for a home draw, 5/2 for the draw is a decent punt.

Down into the Championship, and Newcastle host Preston. The Magpies have made a habit of some crushing home wins whilst Preston’s away form isn’t up to much. Over 2.5 goals is the bet here at 21/20.

In League One, Tranmere have quietly improved their form after being the early-season whipping boys for just about everybody. Whilst they remain in trouble, they’re now only a couple of wins from mid-table and they host Leyton Orient who have been steady if unspectacular on their travels. The draw at 12/5 is worth taking.

A slightly more risky bet in League Two is on offer in the Rotherham/Torquay game on Friday night. Despite their excellent side, Rotherham have tended to lose concentration at various times this season and have displayed vulnerability at home. Torquay tend to lose by the odd goal at the moment, and with Rotherham’s front two of Le Fondre and Pope not lacking in the goals department, a 2-1 home victory at 8/1 is a nice little tempter.

Monty has become something of a cult figure at Victoria Road since his arrival, seen by many supporters as the nearly man in Stilly’s squad. Always the bridesmaid but never the bride, the ex-Wealdstone man had only made a smattering of substitute appearances and the occasional start in the Essex Senior Cup, until now.

It was therefore a bold move to see him in the starting XI at the weekend. Given a dreadful run of results that had seen the Daggers lose 6 of the last 7 league matches, with 4 straight defeats, Stilly clearly believed things needed freshening up.

Never one to shy away from blooding youngsters in the first team, it is perhaps a surprise that we’ve had to wait so long for Monty to be given his chance. Dominic Green was just 18 when he was signed from the Daggers by Peterborough in September 2007.

The left wing berth has been a troublesome position this season. Having never fully recovered from losing the mesmerising Matt Ritchie in the close season, we’ve seen a number of players try to fill the void, most regularly Jon Nurse and Peter Gain.

Neither, however, have the pace required to beat a full-back, and in Nursey’s case there was always a tendency to cut inside and use his favoured right foot than take a chance on his left.

Montgomery’s impact on Saturday was tremendous as he showed a willingness to beat his man, and looked particularly dangerous on the counter attack. A beautifully chipped ball to the forward-bound Peter Gain almost resulted in a great breakaway goal in the second half.

With this impressive display, the inevitable question is, should we have seen Monty start sooner? Only the boss knows. After all, John works with these players day in and day out and sees far more of them than the man on the terrace.

We all have an opinion, with the majority of message board posters being left bemused at his non-inclusion despite a number of impressive cameos in the past 12 months. But it’s one thing doing it for 20 minutes against tired defenders, as opposed to being up for the fight over 90.

What was also encouraging about Saturday was Monty’s linking up with new left-back Damien McCrory signed recently for a five-figure fee from Plymouth Argyle. In truth, we’ve been reeling since losing Scotty to Peterborough in October, and the arrivals of Matt Lockwood and Jamie Day from Colchester and Peterborough respectively, were only ever quick fixes.

The difference from Saturday and the Day/Nurse partnership on the left hand side from a few weeks back is incredible. While many were calling for Monty to be awarded the Man of the Match award at the weekend, McCrory was equally effective, if less noticeable, over the course of the match.

The question on everyone’s lips after this much-needed victory is whether Monty has now done enough to cement his place in the starting line-up for the forthcoming fixtures? With two away games against division heavyweights Rochdale and Aldershot to come, it’s a tough call, but given his unexpected start against high-flying Bournemouth, why not?

Fast forward just 12 matches and we now find ourselves in 12th with only 8 more points to our name. To highlight quite how pivotal this match appears to have been, Rochdale are now the leaders with a massive 19 point advantage over ourselves. Dale finally appear to be fulfilling their promise with a superb young side built by the excellent Keith Hill whilst we seem to be going in the opposite direction.

If the league had started on the day of the Rochdale game, we would currently be in the relegation zone with ten goals scored and twenty conceded. Football is full of ifs and buts (here’s another coming up), but it is still an alarming statistic. John Still has remained bullish in the face of adversity this week:

“We just need to tinker with one or two things and it will all come right. A club the size of ours will have ups and downs.”

You would have to agree with him, even if only out of respect for his record as our manager. So if we really are only a small adjustment away from the heights of the first few months of the season, where do these adjustments need to be made? In terms of personnel, the side we fielded against Rotherham is four players different to the one that started the season and one of those you could argue is an improvement with Ogogo proving more adept at right back than Scott Doe, with Doe currently performing well in Antwi’s place. Therefore you would have to point at the three other changes and the most glaringly obvious is that two of them are in central midfield.

Whilst it is more than fair to say that Taiwo/Thurgood was light years better than the current midfield permutations on offer, I don’t think this is our only woe. Form is a funny thing – even seemingly poor sides can go on great runs off the back of some self-belief, just look at the heights Birmingham have hit in the Premiership this season. Getting off to a flyer with a shaky win at Crewe followed by crushing defeats of Torquay and Shrewsbury set us up for a superb run that stuttered with Ogogo’s red card at Macclesfield, and was shattered by the cruelty of Rochdale’s victory. Getting hammered 6-1 at Huddersfield in the cup probably didn’t help morale very much either.

So, with doubt perhaps creeping in, it was far from the ideal time for the side to become unsettled. Several injuries, suspensions and a high-profile transfer out of the club ruined the momentum and balance of the team at a time when we badly needed some stability to bounce straight back. The vibe we had in those early weeks has visibly drained from players who are not reproducing the form they showed before. You can’t blame them given all the disruption they have been through, but now it is time for them to forget about the table, forget about recent results, and just play the football they are capable of. Feeling sorry for ourselves will not win football matches.

Early indications are that we have finally replaced Griffiths adequately with young Damien McCrory, but not before we went through an ageing Lockwood and a very inconsistent Day. It also seems Josh Scott is now free of injury problems and Ogogo is back in the side after inexplicably being overlooked when Ofori-Twumasi was around. With any luck we can now field a proper team until the end of the season, but the big players such as Benson, Gain, Arber and Roberts need to be mentally strong to lift their young team-mates. Benson is probably the most worrying case with his conspicuous anonymity in many matches of late.

Mental toughness seems even more relevant when you consider the amount of goals being conceded just before half-time. Against Notts County, Shrewsbury, Cheltenham and Bury we have shot ourselves in the foot with minutes left in the first half, going on to lose 3 of those 4 matches.

Returning to the topic of our central midfield, we have never replaced the high-energy of Solomon Taiwo and are obviously missing the defence-screening abilities of Thurgood, but we must be able to find a solution amongst our squad. Gain is more than capable of making an impact from this position, but Spiller has flattered to deceive on a few occasions with Marlon Pack not offering any obvious qualities.

We are crying out for somebody who is mobile enough to play in our high-tempo system and the best option seems to be Ogogo. He has played in this position whilst at Arsenal, and his excellent stamina, power and pace seem well suited to a role alongside Gainy. It would be a big call to disrupt the defensive unit, but with goals being leaked anyway we seemingly have little to lose. Romain Vincelot is a ready-made replacement at right-back if Stilly can show the faith that made him offer the Frenchman an 18-month contract. The other position of much discussion amongst the Dagenham faithful is the left of midfield, with Montgomery’s name constantly mentioned. Given Nurse hasn’t scored for 2 months and has only a single assist to his name so far, it seems a fair shout. But actually I would pick Tommy Tejan-Sie after his early-season glimpses. He certainly has the skill to create some chances for our starving strikeforce.

Here’s hoping for signs of recovery against Bournemouth this Saturday. In John we trust.

Josh Scott returned to the side in place of the creaking Currie but it didn’t have the desired effect as both sides played out an awful encounter totally bereft of quality. Perhaps both sides were looking forward to getting back home in the warm for leftover turkey and a pint, and the crowd could’ve been forgiven for leaving early to do the same. However just when it seemed as if this would be the least eventful game of the season, the Daggers contrived to blow their chance. A handball in the box gave Arber the chance to snatch three points but he blazed over, and inevitably it came back to bite us. McKay’s ferocious shot was saved by Roberts, but the ball spun up and towards the goal. Whether or not it crossed the line before Roberts clawed it away is anybody’s guess, and indeed the linesman’s guess was that it had, despite him having to run ten yards before he was in the correct position to flag.

Just two days later Cheltenham visited Victoria Road sitting perilously close to the relegation zone. This was a great chance to put things right, but once again it didn’t go according to plan. Gain’s suspension meant a rather soggy-looking midfield of Spiller and Miller, with Nurse retaining his place on the left. After not seeing the ball for the majority of the last game Benson could perhaps be forgiven for putting a good chance straight at the keeper. Otherwise there was little to be encouraged by as the power and strength of Alsop and Richards gave us a tough time and Nana struggled to deal with Low. A goal just before the break was the killer as Richards’ header was deflected over the dive of Roberts by Nana.

There was little impact from the home side in the 2nd period either and Cheltenham sealed the win midway through the half. Nana gave the ball away on the right and the ball was instantly played past a short-handed Daggers defence for Low to run on and slot past Roberts. Despite introducing Currie and Thomas, nothing could be salvaged and the Robins saw out a deserved win. Thankfully this proved to the be final appearance in a Daggers shirt for both Nana Ofori-Twumasi and Adam Miller. Despite scoring two goals from his position of right-back, Nana could not mask his incredibly frail defensive attributes. As for Miller, we did need him to be more defensive than he naturally is due to Thurgood’s absence, but he never looked like proving an adequate deputy. Caught too far up the field on too many occasions, he over-committed himself in bad areas and it was very rare that we won good possession in the middle. And he was in dire need of a haircut.

Two Saturdays followed without matches due to Notts County’s cup exploits and Torquay’s frozen pitch, but there was finally some more action midway through January as Crewe were the visitors. Thankfully, there were returns for Gain and Ogogo and a debut for new loan signing Marlon Pack in midfield. Both sides played some neat football and went close before Josh Scott broke the deadlock. A slick move ended when Green whipped a nice ball over for Scott to guide his header over the keeper. Minutes later, Spiller teed up Green who placed the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the box, and he nearly scored again straight from kick-off with Benson’s follow-up also being turned away. Roberts made two wonderful saves to keep hold of his clean sheet, and as the game wore on Spiller came into his own with some excellent passing and movement to see the game out comfortably.

Unsurprisingly, the same eleven took to the field at Shrewsbury and picked up where they left off. Green slipped a nice ball through for Benson who unleashed a great shot across the goal from the corner of the box to give the Daggers a rare away lead. However, frailties crept back in as we conceded two awful goals before the end of the half. Firstly, a simple pass across the box was placed in the corner by Hibbert with a distinct lack of urgency in the Daggers back-line to cut the danger out. On the stroke of half-time (yes, again) the eventual winner came as Pack headed straight up in the air and somehow Leslie was allowed to bring the ball down twelve yards out, spin, and place the ball into the corner.

Both sides battled for another goal in the second half but really neither side looked to have too much in the way of creativity, and our fate was sealed with a pathetic decision to send Scott Doe off for an alleged elbow. The referee was in an excellent position yet still decided that the collision between Doe and Dunfield was a red-card offence. This led to a debut for new French signing (ooh la la) Romain Vincelot, but the only remaining chance fell to Gain whose deflected effort found its way into Button’s gloves on the goalline. To make matters worse, there was then the prospect of getting back to the town centre for the train home now that the Shrews play in a new – and all too common – out of town stadium.

Given that yesterday’s match was also off, the last game in this round-up is last Tuesday’s pointless exercise against Notts County. With County bringing in countless players on big money who are too good for this level, they should really be sweeping everybody aside. And swept aside we were, despite a decent early period with Josh Scott going close on a couple of occasions. The customary goal just before half time came when Davies curled a lovely finish into the far corner after hesistant defending.

The second period was spent mainly with County wasting every possible second without being penalised, especially after Davies curled a free-kick into the box which seemed to evade everybody before bouncing lamely into the net. The County fans were quick to smugly jeer every mistake by a Daggers player as they revelled in their lead. Everybody likes to see their side win, but the way the players and the fans carry on you would think they’ve actually achieved something when in reality they are purchasing success. Despite their past financial woes, they don’t seem to care that the money could disappear just as quickly as it arrived, plunging them into a situation with a massive wage bill they cannot fund. A little bit of humility goes a long way in football, and I think a lot of people will be amused if their arrogance ends in tears.

Anyway, back to the game and Benson missed a free header to make a game of it, before Ogogo was very unfortunate to deflect Hawley’s shot in for 3. And so ends a pretty awful period with a suddenly tough-looking match against Northampton to come next week. It seems we still haven’t solved the midfield frailty that has haunted us since Thurgood’s injury and with Day looking inconsistent at left-back, the goals are starting to leak in, especially just before the break. With our attacking form also sporadic as Green and Scott find their feet in their first season of League football, it seems to we need to target a more realistic mid-table finish and avoid being dragged any further towards the bottom half.

Does anybody else think that Arbs bears a certain resemblance to sour-faced Aussie cricketer Ricky Ponting? If the physical similarity isn’t enough, there are plenty of others. Punter is captain of the Australian team whilst Arber holds the same distinction with the Daggers, both are from the southern hemisphere, and both love to take to the field wearing rather fetching tights. Unfortunately, Ponting’s came out of his mum’s wardrobe.

With only eight of the weekend’s games from England’s top four divisions surviving the cold snap, Jeff and the boys on Soccer Saturday will certainly be earning their corn! Thankfully Birmingham’s home game with Manchester United, which is live on ESPN, has not fallen foul of the weather so there will at least be some football action on the box this weekend.

But this enforced mid-season hiatus has added extra spice to the January transfer rumour mill. As we discussed last time out, there has already been plenty of transfer activity at the Daggers in 2010. The latest developments emerged on Thursday. Terry Harris warmed Daggers fans’ hearts when he admitted to the Barking & Dagenham Post that the club had been in discussions with Portsmouth over the possible return of fans’ favourite, Matt Ritchie. Harris was keen not to get too carried away though; Ritchie’s immediate future could go one of two ways. He may well be called into action if Portsmouth decide to offload their bigger names in an attempt to lessen their reported £3m monthly wage bill. Alternatively, Portsmouth may see Premier League survival as their only way to keep afloat long term, therefore making concessions with some of their fringe players in a desperate bid to keep hold of their prized assets.

Away from the rumour mill, the Daggers have not been in match action since an abject home defeat to Cheltenham Town on December 28th. It capped a miserable month for the Reds who also succumbed to lowly Northampton and promotion-chasing Aldershot. In truth, the loss of Stuart Thurgood, Will Antwi and for a time Josh Scott, together with Scotty’s abrupt departure to Peterborough, has pushed the squad to breaking point. Although no manager will admit to seeing a postponement as a good thing, it wouldn’t be surprising if one or two people at Victoria Road saw this as a perfect opportunity to regroup.

Matches have been taking place sporadically in League 2. While Rochdale continue their inexorable march to a first promotion since 1974, Notts County and Shrewsbury Town have also made positive strides to cement their play-off aspirations, pushing the Daggers down to sixth. Shrewsbury pulled off one of the results of the season, becoming only the second club to beat Chesterfield in their own back yard this term.

But while the current pause in matches gives us time to recuperate our beleaguered squad, there are also financial implications from the break. Notts County executive chairman Peter Trembling alluded to this recently: “Clearly, the postponement of three fixtures over the festive period has not helped the club’s cash flow and this is an area we are currently actively addressing.” Nobody coming through the turnstiles impacts other aspects of matchday revenue such as merchandise sales, thus exacerbating the already difficult financial situation many football clubs currently find themselves in.

Of course Daggers fans will have painful memories after the club lost out on a £150,000 windfall when the televised FA Cup third round replay with Charlton Athletic was postponed due to a frozen pitch in January 2001. Chairman Dave Andrews was quoted in The Telegraph at the time, saying: “It’s like winning the Lottery and losing the ticket.” The Daggers eventually bowed out 1-0 after extra time when the game was finally played on fourth round day.

And it’s not just football clubs who are feeling the pinch. Thankfully Torquay postponed Saturday’s match in good time, preventing any Daggers fans who may have been considering a last-minute jaunt to the South West from wasting their time and money. While all the white stuff is great fun, I’m personally hoping it clears soon with train tickets already booked up to Shrewsbury in a fortnight’s time and Lincoln a week later!

Enjoy the snow if you can but let’s hope we can get back to some proper football action soon!

Just last season we came close to losing Ben Strevens during the window before he made the decision to stay until his contract expired at the end of the season. Speculation also mounted surrounding Sam Saunders after he admitted that he was unlikely to sign a new contract. Of course, this is all without mentioning the seemingly endless winter speculation regarding the futures of Paul Benson and Scott Griffiths. Thankfully we seem to be running out of young stars for richer clubs to rob from us but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to talk about this year!

Done deals

The club have already announced the signing of striker-cum-defender Phil Walsh from Dorchester. You would imagine that getting into any side managed by ferocious former Dagger Ashley Vickers indicates his attitude is spot on, but question marks hang over his goal tally. This season it wouldn’t be fair to judge given his primary use as a defender, but past seasons haven’t seen particularly good returns. At least his lovely hair-do should mean he has an instant conversation topic with Danny Green to make him feel at home.

The only other inbound transfers so far are loan deals. Portsmouth have given us a lend of lanky midfielder Marlon Pack for a month as we try to restore some ball-winning abilities to the middle of the field in Thurgood’s prolonged absence. I’m sure everybody has their fingers crossed that he’ll have an instant impack-t… sorry.

Jamie Day will remain at the club til the end of the month, presumably whilst the management attempt to seal a deal for a more permanent replacement. It is unlikely that Day will manage to force his way back into the reckoning at Posh though, and perhaps a longer deal may be in the offing if there aren’t any other suitable options. Meanwhile going the other way, Scott Griffiths is all but certain to sign on the dotted line after settling in pretty well in the Championship.

Likely lads

Upon Darren Currie’s arrival in a loan deal from Chesterfield, the club announced that the move would become permanent in January. The only word on the matter since however has been to confirm his loan expiry after the Torquay match this Saturday. Given Currie’s past relationship with John Still it would be very surprising if anybody withdrew from the deal, but failing to confirm the signing is interesting with Chesterfield fans also now speculating that Currie is about to rejoin their ranks.

Another player likely to extend his time with us is Danny Spiller. Both the player and the manager have mentioned in recent weeks the possibility of a contract extension, so the deal appears to be a formality. His current deal expires this month and with injury blighting his stay so far, there will surely not be a massive amount of competition for his signature.

Going the other way is Joao Carlos, who was signed on a short-term deal from Aveley a few months ago. After making the bench and playing an Essex Senior Cup match, he hasn’t been seen for a while and has popped up at Dartford in recent weeks. Also you would very much expect Gavin Dayes to be finding new employment after not playing a single game since his short-term move last month.

Dead in the water

Undoubtedly a left back will be high on the agenda for this transfer window given our distinct lack of them. However it seems that Gareth Gwillim will not be the man coming in after Histon rejected our bid. We know from past experience that our first offer is our final offer so it looks likely that we’ll miss out on probably the best left-back currently playing in the Blue Square Premier. Which is a bit of a shame.

Pure speculation

Recent newspaper talk seems to imply that Danny Green has attracted interest coming into the window, so if the Daggers manage to obtain a hefty fee for his services, could it open the door for Sam Saunders to return? Andy Scott has already threatened a clear-out after a disappointing start to life in League One for the Bees, and with Sammy failing to make the starting line-up for quite some time, he may be one that needs to watch out. A recent upturn in the team’s form may have changed Scott’s mind however.

Another headache of recent weeks has been the left side of midfield with Peter Gain being moved inside and Jon Nurse not looking totally comfortable in the position. With Montgomery apparently not being deemed ready for the rigours of League Two football, and Tommy Tejan-Sie not getting a chance since a promising couple of outings earlier in the season, could a move for Thurrock winger Fola Orilonishe be on the cards? He already has 7 goals in the league this season and at 23, it could be time for him to make a step up. If not, there’s always that old chestnut Glenn Poole who is with the Grays circus!

One player who could add competition in the back four is Bromley captain Rob Gillman, a former Bishop’s Stortford player of the year. With Anwar Uddin having several injury problems over the last couple of years, and Will Antwi’s well documented injury proneness, an extra defender may be needed to shore things up. Rumour has it Luton are also interested. Another Thurrock player that may be on the radar is midfielder Reiss Gilbey. At just 18 years old, he has broken into the first team at Ship Lane and has impressed in the last couple of weeks.

Daring to dream

Star of last season, Matty Ritchie, has returned to Portsmouth after his loan with Notts County expired. Although Portsmouth look set to offload players if anybody actually wants them, surely the blonde trickster isn’t ready for the top flight just yet. So how about letting him come back to set Victoria Road alight again?